An ode to joy · 4:33am Jun 25th, 2012
'kay, let's see if I can get this whole blogposty-thingy workingy. LONG-ASS POST APPROACHING!
Hey everyone, Zay-el here!
I wasn't planning on doing a blog post anytime soon, but I think it's high time I share with you a little adventure I had today. Now, some of you may have heard about somepony called device heretic, who graces the reading audience with his writing. I personally have read rather little of his works, but considering he seems to be pretty well-known, I thought maybe a little peek might not hurt.
I've only read into some of his shorter works and I haven't gone into his longest story Eternal yet. In any case, this brought me to his newest fic, the EqD-featured Dictated, Not Read. However, reading this fic I realized there were a couple of things that detracted from my reading pleasure. As such, I decided to compile my thoughts a little and comment. I didn't expect a reply or anything, just wanted to leave my thoughts there.
A couple hours later, this happened: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/41019
Go ahead and read it, I'll wait!
Now that you're back, let me try and fill in a couple of voids. Not sure if this is all my doing, but I'm almost certain I've had a hand in it. Sadly, I can't quote my original reply, since it had been deleted. At the time, I assumed it may have even been a system error, so I retyped it all and sent it on its way again:
Not sure why my comment has suddenly disappeared, but ah well, here it is again. As I said, I didn't like this fic, though you may call me a heartless bastard for that. Not only did I grow to hate this portrayal of Twi within the first half of the fic, but the fact that Shining Armor, Captain of the Guard would pull such a move just threw me straight off the fic right away. Everything just felt convenient to build up Twilight as the character we're supposed to feel sad for, but considering she spent half the fic complaining like a spoiled brat, that's rather difficult to emphasize with her.
The writing was indeed solid through most of the fic though(I recalled ellipsis needing a space afterwards, but whatever), though at times the dialogue felt a little off:
“Knowing the condition in which it was given changes things,” she said
Seriously, who talks like that, especially in a highly agitated emotional state?
In any case, I dunno. It didn't do it for me, though I suspect many others resonate with it. I didn't, that's really all I can say.
I sent this on its way and kicked back once more. Considering my job, this included boxes and crates and reorganizing and meat freezer-ARGH!!
Once I had a break though, I checked back, only to find my comment once again missing. Still naive as always, I was advised by someone to try and sound nicer, in case my first sentence may have come across as troll-ish. Fair enough, I have ears and I listened!
I like sadfics, even though I'm hardly ever actually moved by them. Twilight in this story initially gave me the impression of a spoiled brat and left me with a distaste throughout most of the fic. A couple moments really tried my suspension of disbelief, such as Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard just plain passing the eulogy over to his sister like that. Sure, we didn't see him for long, but I never felt like he'd be one to pull such a move. It felt like he's doing this just so Twi's sadness can upped to eleven.
Some bits if dialogue also felt a little unrealistic, or just plain odd. “Knowing the condition in which it was given changes things,” <-- this line especially felt weird and somewhat hard to swallow.
Like I said, I just didn't really like this too much. The writing wasn't bad and there were bits and pieces I enjoyed, but it just altogether felt underwhelming to me.
Okay, so I wasn't exactly all that nicer, but I have a bat with nails to teach me better on that. Once more I sent this off on its way. And it was deleted, again. At this point, I found myself somewhat... irritated.
-and asked whether the missing comments and a possible answer to them were the result of me not kissing enough ass. Finally, the stars aligned and the heavens opened: device heretic has graced me with an answer.
device heretic: I'm deleting your comments because I'm 100% uninterested in you making a show of not liking something because it's popular.
Please, grow up before shooting your mouth off.
I can't help, but wonder whether this is a bizarre gimmick, or am I facing a male human Rarity, upped to eleven. In any case, if I may just say a couple of things...
You are not the go-to author of pony fanfiction, believe it or not. I couldn't care less about your perceived e-fame and whatever grandeur this kicked into your head. I only care whether the story I'm reading appeals to me, or not. Yours did not. If you honestly think I'm doing this for hipster cred, then I'm just not sure whether to call you an idiot or pity you. I've listed several reasons as to why I don't shower you with rainbows, but apparently this was all the case of me "not getting it".
In that case, you could either have just ignore my comment or answer me. Either would have sufficed and it'd be a thing of the past. But no, you had to go and deleted whatever I said, three times in a row(four if we count the angry one). I'm very sorry, if your readership does not get your great artistic vision, but in some cases, this might not be fully their fault. Maybe, and just maybe indeed, they just got lost somewhere along your trail and couldn't find their way back. It happens. Insulting whoever may happen upon your writing will not make it any easier for them to decipher it though.
Twilight felt like I was reading Diamond Tiara and that left me with a distaste, REGARDLESS how justified it may or may have not been. I am human, I am judgmental and I will have bias as well, unless you wish your readers to me fanfic-reading army of cloned robot zombie pirates. Last time I'm also allowed to not necessarily leave you with a LotR-sized constructive criticism bundle, but am allowed to simply voice my opinion. That is, unless you've been bedding some of the FIMfic admins without the userbase knowing.
With that said, I ain't even all that mad. I have enough time in the produce cooler to chill. I just wanted to provide another side of this little 'conflict', just in case some may be heretical enough to read up on someone else's version of events. Then again, as always, I'm probably irredeemably wrong at everything and I apologize.
To sign off, here's what I sent him back after the PM. I never really got a reply and probably never will, but it's a nice thing to keep around nonetheless. It's all shiny and new!
Zay-el: Your fic is on the feature list and on EqD. I found the idea interesting and considering it's performing so well, I wanted to read it.
It just so happens that I ended up not liking it, for the reasons I've described three times already.
I'm sorry if this the first time this happened to you. Obviously, from some kind of discorded perspective, I'm at fault here.
This is Zay-el, signing off for today.
These were pretty much my exact thoughts upon seeing that blog post by DH, and that was without having bothered to read the story. If I could favorite this, I would.
Wow. What a whiner.
I mean seriously, if he's deleting comments like yours for a 'lack of depth' then he's showing a complete lack of understanding of how an internet audience (or any kind of audience, really) works. Most of them aren't going to give you much more than some variation of "I like/dislike this," and that's if they decide to comment at all. Maybe it's because I've dealt with YouTube commentators for the last few years, but I would have been ecstatic if even a quarter of the comments I received (not only on YT, but here and anywhere else) were as expressive as yours was.
Wow. Looks like the subject of the post has obviously never heard the first rule of posting online:
The point of posting your work online is to gather criticism about it. If you don't want something to be criticised, you don't show it to anyone else.
As someone who has little experience with DH I have to be honest and say that I know little of other then what I have gathered from all the different blog post on all sides about him, I only found out about him when he published Nocturne, and based off of reaction from a rogue comment on it before I had the chance to read it, I gathered that he is a reactionist, and as such reacts strongly to anything that is first seen as a threat, with little thought on the matter at the time. This does not lend it self well to his writing as a simple comment stating what caused you to be turned off can misconstrued by him, causing a strong reaction which often leaves the commenter with a strong negative view of him. And I lost my point somewhere in this mess of a comment, but despite that this still stands as what I have gathered from my few observations.
Why, pray tell, is he or she not as mad at the equally unproductive comments "I liked this, faved" and "device heretic does it again" as he or she is at those that say "I didn't like this"? Neither adds anything to the conversation. And by your account, Zay, you did provide some element of constructive criticism.
The biggest problem with DH's reasoning is his or her assumption that fimfiction comments are for the author's benefit. They are not. They are for the benefit of the readers. If we want to give him or her personal feedback, we can send him or her a PM. But that's now what we're trying to do. We're trying to tell other readers what we think about a certain story, and why. Comments are critique: positive and negative. And by putting a story out there, you subject it to both.
I only feel that DH should stop floating on his e-fame cloud.
Right now he is on a high of pony-fame.
And then, in 50 years time, when my children asked what happened, they day Device Heretic fell, I can tell them whole heartedly that I laughed in his face and shouted something about being right all along.
Wow, that sucks. Well, you really didn't do anything wrong; even if your first comment was angry or harsh, you changed it multiple times. Unfortunately, you can't control how other people react. It's good that you yourself didn't react in a bad way--you kept your head. It's a shame when things like this happen, but it is the internet, and you might as well let it go, right? Of course, you do what you want--I wasn't the one who had my comment deleted after all.
Some people just can't handle criticism.
Zay-el was loved for this post. (And I don't even know anything about DH)